Return to Hummingbird's Home Page
Prior to the automation of General De Banque's trading room operations, each trader worked at several desktop screens. Throughout the day, traders would access various applications and information residing on different computing platforms. General De Banque's IS department wanted to somehow integrate these screens into a more cohesive desktop, yet they still needed to provide the traders with multitasking capabilities, such as the ability to connect to the mainframe and other host computers, while maintaining the ability to utilize productivity applications, such as Microsoft Excel. It was clear that Generale de Banque needed a flexible solution.
In mid-1993, the Banque was ready to launch full force with the trading room project. It was unanimous that UNIX would be the server operating system, but decisions had to made regarding the traders' desktops. There were three choices to consider:
The first alternative, workstations, would be too expensive to provide to every trader, and was eliminated immediately. Project managers then compared X terminals to PCs. Although the X terminal solution was 20% less expensive than the PC based solution, and was able to offer security and technological maturity, Windows NT PCs running PC X server software was preferred, since this model presented the ability to connect heterogeneous computing environments (including IBM and Digital Equipment Corp. platforms) in addition to superior standardization. Pentium processors were chosen for the traders' PCs. All told, Generale De Banque invested approximately US$24 million in its new trading room network.
Said Richard Peters, Director of Financial Computing Systems for General De Banque, "We needed PC X server software that operated in 32-bit mode, and that would completely integrate with our computing environment. We chose Hummingbird's eXceed/NT." Hummingbird Communications had provided General de Banque with eXceed/NT in its pilot testing stages. Once the decision was made to go with the PC-based solution, eXceed/NT was implemented across the new trading room PC network.
General De Banque's client server architecture includes 50 UNIX servers, half of which are dedicated to host functions and half of which operate as application servers. Each UNIX server is accessed by approximately 8 PC desktops running Hummingbird's eXceed/NT PC X server software. Should any downtime be experienced, another UNIX server can be accessed by the PC users.
The Generale de Banque back office runs an IBM mainframe, accessed via 3270 emulation. The entire system runs on an Ethernet network under TCP/IP. In addition to running X applications on the PCs by way of eXceed/NT software, each PC communicates with the AS/400 in 5250 emulation, managing all contracts signed by the traders.
A full year has elapsed since the automated trading room has been up and running, and General de Banque is both confident in the new computer system and satisfied with the choices made. Other financial institutions have been keeping a close eye on the Banque's progress. Already, a financial organization in Japan has expressed interest in following General De Banque's lead.